"You must hold on, no matter what, you have to keep going—I’ll think of something else," Star Illusion Qianji said solemnly.
Mu Hanyan nodded. She knew that the only one she could rely on was herself, and the only thing she could do was to keep running the cultivation technique at full strength to continuously gather qi, otherwise, it would be a dead end.
Time and again, the Heavenly Heart Technique was activated, the qi it condensed, however, vanished into the Beast Egg at an even faster rate.
As time slowly passed, Mu Hanyan’s body became increasingly depleted, and she felt heavier and heavier. Her body had curled up into a ball, like a starving cat in the cold, waiting for death.
The qi within her Heart Meridian had been depleted to exhaustion, and her vitality was fading away as the last bit of qi was infused into the Beast Egg.
Was she really going to be drained dry?
No, it couldn’t be—there were too many things left undone, too many people waiting for her. She couldn’t die, she absolutely could not. Despite being exhausted to the extreme, her eyes still shone with brilliance, and her gaze remained as firm as ever. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ NoveI-Fire.ɴet
Outside the tent, Mu Cheng and Wu Qiuyun both kept quiet, their faces full of curiosity and anticipation.
The appearance of this Exotic Beast Egg was far too bizarre, and it was obvious that it was no ordinary matter, leaving them wondering what kind of powerful Exotic Beast it could possibly be.
The two of them were not particularly worried; for a Swordsman of the Holy Court Continent, hatching an Exotic Beast was a very simple matter. As long as one was a Swordsman, even with low strength, they could hatch an Exotic Beast—It was just a question of time. They had never heard of anyone encountering danger while hatching an Exotic Beast.
Of course, Exotic Beast Eggs were extremely rare, even those deep-rooted Ancient Sword Families could at most obtain a few low-level Exotic Beast Eggs; ordinary families could hardly even catch a glimpse of one, let alone possess one.
Neither of them could have dreamed that this hatching attempt by Mu Hanyan was far from merely dangerous—it was fraught with peril and almost cost her life.
As Mu Hanyan teetered on the brink of life and death, something was happening outside as well.
A slender figure appeared not far away; in the night, visible by the light of the fire, her beautiful face held a touch of melancholic beauty that aroused pity in the onlooker.
Mu Cheng’s heart couldn’t help beating faster, his gaze somewhat infatuated.
This person was Fourth Miss Zhao.
Fourth Miss Zhao saw the infatuated look in Mu Cheng’s eyes and felt secretly pleased, but also somewhat disdainful; she gestured for him to come over.
"Brother Wu, I have to step away for a moment, I’ll be back soon," Mu Cheng got up and said to Wu Qiuyun.
Wu Qiuyun was wholly curious about what kind of Exotic Beast the Beast Egg would hatch into and didn’t pay much attention. He casually glanced at the faint figure, guessing it was probably some family member related to Mu Cheng, and smiled knowingly.
"Go ahead, there’s no danger anyway. It doesn’t matter if you come back later or not at all," Wu Qiuyun said meaningfully.
"Brother Wu, don’t get me wrong, we’re just friends." As a family member, Mu Cheng had seen enough of the world to understand the insinuations in Wu Qi’s words and blushed as he spoke.
"Oh, friends, yeah, I got it," Wu Qiuyun winked, his smile growing more ambiguous.
Mu Cheng felt uncomfortable under his gaze and hurried over to Fourth Miss Zhao.
"How did you come here?" Mu Cheng asked Fourth Miss Zhao excitedly, yet timidly.